Nomad Health expands online marketplace to nurses

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Dive Brief:

Digital health startup Nomad Health has expanded its online platform for freelance medical jobs to nurses, with the aim of reducing nursing shortages at healthcare organizations across the country.

Beginning today in Texas and soon nationwide, nurses can search Nomad’s platform for short-term clinical work in hospitals and health systems.

The two-year-old company raised $4 million in venture capital funding and launched in 2016 as a freelance marketplace for doctors, with an eye on simplifying the $15 billion temporary healthcare staffing industry. Nomad’s doctor market is now available in 14 states.

Dive Insight:

Nearly half of nurses in a recent survey said they are thinking about leaving the field due to feeling overworked, workplace harassment and inadequate pay. About two-thirds (62%) reported “the national nursing shortage has strongly impacted their workload,” according to the survey by travel nursing company RNnetwork.

Another survey by Kronos Incorporated found 90% of nurses are considering leaving their hospital for another job due to poor work/life balance.

Nurses are the backbone of the healthcare system, and the lack of nurses has become a nationwide problem. Nurses that remain on the job are forced to assume more work spread across larger numbers of patients. Factors contributing to the shortfall include the aging population in the U.S. and the number of nurses approaching retirement.

Studies have shown that overworked nurses are more likely to make mistakes and have lower patient satisfaction scores. “If a nurse shows up to work and is feeling tired, disengaged and unappreciated, then they are not going to provide their best care,” Elizabeth Scala, author of Stop Nurse Burnout, told Healthcare Dive recently.